Five years after the start of the Iraq War, is anyone unaware of its events, the lies we were told and what Iraq is like today? Television has fed us programme after programme analysing and dramatising the war, until some people may be suffering from compassion fatigue. Several programmes this week underlined the familiar facts.

In Rageh Omaar: The Iraq War by Numbers (ITV1), Rageh revisited friends in Iraq to hear that the hopes of five years ago have not been realised. People were glad when Saddam Hussein was deposed but now militias wage uncontrolled civil war. Formerly a secular society, Iraq is now dominated by feuding religious fundamentalists. A photographer friend of Rageh's said: "The Americans are destroying the country."

Some of the same points were made by Peter Oborne in Iraq: The Betrayal (Channel 4), but he added that Britain's support for the Iraq War made us an obvious target for suicide bombers. Another Dispatches documentary - Iraq's Lost Generation (Channel 4) - noted that 20 per cent of Iraq's population have left the country. Many of those remaining suspect that the Americans are there simply for oil or control of the Middle East.

Two programmes on Monday night tackled the same incident: the reprisals meted out to Iraqis in November 2005 by American soldiers when one of their colleagues was killed by a roadside bomb. Nick Broomfield's Battle for Haditha (Channel 4) dramatised the events , while On That Day (More4) - made by Nick's son, Barney - told the story as a documentary. Haditha was just one episode in a seemingly endless war but it typified the violence and inhumanity that now pervades Iraq. The American soldiers' contempt for the Iraqis was reminiscent of the way they treated the Vietnamese in an earlier war.

Five years ago, many of us were telling the government that invading Iraq was a bad idea. Forty years ago, many people pointed out that the Vietnam War was a bad idea. In The South Bank Show (ITV1), Melvyn Bragg looked back at the outbreak of protest in 1968 and the way that it involved all kinds of artists. Some people think the protests failed but they sparked the birth of the "counter-culture" and politicised many artists and others. We saw Vanessa Redgrave still campaigning against Guantanamo.

I'm not getting compassion fatigue but simply fatigue at the never-ending flow of reinterpretations of Jesus's crucifixion. The Passion (BBC1) would have baffled anyone not already indoctrinated in Christianity. It took for granted that we would know such things as who Caiaphas was - or Joseph of Arimathea (most of us wouldn't even know where Arimathea is - or Judea, for that matter). And the drama aroused plenty of doubts in one's mind. For example, Jesus was shown buying a donkey so that he could fulfil Biblical prophecy by riding into Jerusalem on it, which seemed rather manipulative. The cast looked much paler than they should have been in such a hot country.

Help! My Kid's a Rock Star! (BBC1) interviewed the parents of five pop singers, including the fathers of Courtney Love and Amy Winehouse. There were some salutary lessons for parents and children about such things as drink, drugs and the importance of parental affection. The overriding message seemed to be that some children deprived of a happy upbringing can find fulfilment as performers.

We still get numerous programmes showing wannabees trying to become singing stars. Last week, my colleague Christopher Gray summed up most of what is wrong with I'd Do Anything (BBC1) - the third in Andrew Lloyd Webber's series of programmes publicising new London stage productions of old musicals. Not only does the 12-week series give Andrew free publicity: from the third programmme in the series, viewers will be charged 25p for the privilege of voting for contestants to fill the role of Nancy in a new production of Oliver! Perhaps the series should have been entitled You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two.